I got an email from one of my students last week. A short story she brought to class earlier this year is now a screenplay. Not only that, it is going to become a film. There’s a director, a cast, props, probably even coffee and doughnuts. A little backstory, though, to explain how Pam went from short story to screenplay. Last year Pam brought to class a short story about a suicidal man … [Read more...]
What the Teacher Learned in Class
My Writing Classes
A writer I know, Randy Susan Meyers, wrote an interesting blog on her website a few weeks ago called “Writer’s Groups: Don’t Drink and Read.” Randy touches on a variety of issues that resonated with me as a writing teacher, especially since I have encountered a few of the same problems in my classes. So I thought I would make some comments about my writing classes. (I should explain first that … [Read more...]
Constructing a Novel–The Outline
Several months ago I heard John Irving speak at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. A few months later I heard Margaret Atwood at the same venue as she read from her latest book and was interviewed. Both authors were engaging and dropped various jewels of insight that readers and writers could grab. Yet I was struck by one difference between them. Many fans of Irving have heard that he … [Read more...]
More Than Simple Details
I love long, lyrical descriptions in books and stories. Not necessarily Henry James, but I enjoy exact and detailed descriptions of people and places. Some readers do not. They are happy with the bare bones so they can rush on with the story. Writers vary too, some preferring to tell a reader precisely what a room, or street, or main character looks like; while other writers sketch in the … [Read more...]
Teaching
My mother was a teacher. Her mother was a teacher. And her mother was a teacher. Small surprise that when I was a child and people asked me if I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up, I emphatically said no. Then, long after I had grown up to become an editor and writer, the opportunity to teach an adult writing class fell into my lap. My mother, who at that time had been teaching two adult … [Read more...]